A quick request to 20% of you…
I don’t normally use posts to advertise but as this could be mutually beneficial for some of us I thought I’d make an exception!
As you know I had the site redesigned last month, which is always tricky as people use different versions of different browsers. And the 20% of you who are using Internet Explorer 6 won’t be seeing F1 Fanatic the way you’re supposed to.
However you can try out a browser that displays the site properly for free – and I’ll earn a little money in commission if you do. How’s that for win-win?
IE6 drives web designers crazy because (for reasons that are too boring to cover in detail) it doesn’t lay pages out properly. So if you use IE6 the buttons at the top of the screen will look like this:
Instead of this:
And headlines that should fit like this:
Look like this:
We can’t have that can we? You could just upgrade to IE7 but I don’t find it much better – I prefer Firefox myself and if you download it via the button below I earn roughly one US dollar.
Even if you’re using another non-Firefox browser I encourage you to give it a try – not just because I make money out of it, but because it’s a good piece of software. I first tried it four or five years ago and I’ve not found anything better since.
And if everyone who viewed this site in March downloads on it, then I won’t have to worry about my server fees for the rest of the year!
If you’re really interested in this there’s even a campaign.
Thanks for reading. Normal service will resume shortly…
Fer no.65 said on 1st April 2008, 1:34
I can’t understand how people keep on using Internet Explorer!!! Is sooooo bad compared to Firefox! a top-class software!
Try it, please :D!
[Now Keith, i should also receive some of that money xD just a joke]
bigotez said on 1st April 2008, 1:43
Well, IE sucks since its birth… I dumped it right after firefox came out. People should stop using it :P
Kevin said on 1st April 2008, 1:59
The type renders much, much better in Safari/Firefox on OS X… keep up the good work!
John Beamer said on 1st April 2008, 4:16
Keith — my "navigation bar" renders with unequal width, specifically the home button (using Firefox 2.0)
By the way I suspect that IE6.0 is being used mainly by corporates rather than individuals — anyhow, I wish you success in your endeavours
Loki said on 1st April 2008, 4:16
Most people don’t know the power of Firefox, it’s that "oh how much better can it really be" attitude.
One of my web projects last year the only browser that would not render pages and scripts as it was told was, surprise surprise, IE6 (IE7 hadn’t been fully released yet either)! At the time, IE6 had a 80%+ market share of browsers in the UK too, so it wasn’t like I could just let it go.
Firefox is great not only for standards conformance (although I prefer Opera in that respect) but the customisation through extensions and scripts make the web browsing/downloading/developing life unbelievably easier, more efficient and more productive.
Go get Firefox now (from Keith)
*goes to pick up PR cheque from Mozilla :D
varun said on 1st April 2008, 6:17
Will it help you if any one downloads it through this link, no matter they have firefox on their computer or not?
Alex Andronov said on 1st April 2008, 6:59
I get to see your site in Safari (for Mac and PC), Firefox (for Mac and PC), IE 7 and IE 6 depending on which computer I’m on. Unfortunately my IE 6 computer can’t be upgraded because the organisation I work for are a bit mad like that.
M Smith said on 1st April 2008, 7:40
Firefox is the best! (except for Safari on Mac which I use too) I don’t understand why people still use IE….
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 1st April 2008, 8:59
Varun – I like your thinking! But sadly not…
N Smith said on 1st April 2008, 9:28
But surely you will get paid for the download Keith? After all, they have no way of telling if you use it once you have downloaded it. As long as your visitors actually download the file rather than just following the link you should get paid yes?
Jake Archibald said on 1st April 2008, 9:30
You’re lucky to be working on a site where IE counts for only 20% of your users.
However, 20% is a lot, and it’s bad practice to ask your visitors to change their browser for your site, even if your see their current choice of browser as ‘misguided’.
The design issues you’ve mentioned in the article should be simple to patch up for IE6 users. If you’re interested, drop me an email with any other IE issues and I can help write some CSS to sort it out.
Jake.
Sriram said on 1st April 2008, 11:11
I was using IE7 and your blog used to display the way it should. I’m now using IE8 and I find no problems with this either.
rikhart said on 1st April 2008, 14:05
I prefer Opera myself!
Rabi said on 1st April 2008, 15:12
You have a valid point James but if you see what Keith is saying is that by downloading a browser that is FACT: Better, faster and safer he will be earning some money to pay for the hosting of this website which costs money.
Patching the CSS is easy you either write a set of work-around hacks in CSS or write two CSS one for IE one for all other browsers and get javascript to select based on browser detection.
Jake Archibald said on 1st April 2008, 15:53
Rabi: I’m not denying that hosting costs money at all. And saying one browser is better than another for an end user is opinion, not fact. For instance, a blind user may prefer IE to Firefox, because it integrates better with their screen reader. For them, IE 6 is better than Firefox 2.
Fixing the CSS probably doesn’t require hacks, just some adjustments (judging by the examples given).
It’s bad practice and a maintainability nightmare to have 2 CSS files doing the same thing with slight changes in one. Using JavaScript to select them is also very unreliable and requires JavaScript.
If it can’t be done in one CSS file, then an additional CSS file can be served using IE conditional comments (doesn’t require js). This additional file would use specificity to make small changes that fix the layout.
Jake (not James)